Aug 31, 2011 09:02 GMT  ·  By

The tablet market is set for great things, at least Amazon thinks so, given the kind of image analysts have painted for its tablets, even though the product hasn't actually been launched yet.

Amazon, like so many other companies on the IT market, wants to make a name for itself on the tablet segment.

In fact, the outfit intends to be a massive player in this area, matching, perhaps even besting (eventually) if things go in its favor, Apple's iPad sales level.

The company did not actually come out and say precisely what it intends, nor has it commented on what analysts with Forrester Research posted not long ago.

Nonetheless, if Amazon manages to make its tablet as successful as the Kindle e-reader, it stands a fair shot at disrupting every convention currently in place on the slate segment.

Granted, the hardware used in its future slate is expected to stick to what is known at the moment (NVIDIA Tegra 2, Flash storage, ethernet, WiFi, etc.).

However, Forrester research published some very ambitious shipment figures, suggesting that the price, at east, will be lower that what slate hopefuls are used to.

For those that want numbers, Amazon's tablet could score 3 to 5 million sales during the fourth quarter of 2011 alone (unofficial information places Amazon's goal at 4 million for this year).

Once the slate appears, it will compete against Motorola's XOOM, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (provided it doesn't get permanently banned), ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, etc.

"Apple will maintain a strong lead in market share, but Amazon will gain ground quickly and give product strategists from media, software, retail, banking, and other firms a reason to kick app development for Android tablets into high gear," said Ms. Rotman Epps.

The main downside to whatever the tablet launch brings is that the Kindle e-reader will probably start to sell less. Then again, after being the Amazon best-selling item for months, it should have no issue with passing on the torch to something else.